


Late Bloomer

by LIngall



Series: We Can Take it One Step at a Time (I’d like that very much) [10]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, OHFAT, Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 02:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11659929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LIngall/pseuds/LIngall
Summary: Written for the Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon prompt "Late to the Party"Oliver is a man of many talents. He can speak multiple languages, save the city as Green Arrow and make a mean souffle. He is about to find out that not every household task will come so easily to him.





	Late Bloomer

<============>

“Felicity, have you seen any of my new navy blue dress socks?” 

After not hearing an answer, Oliver left the bedroom in search of his socks. He went to the laundry room and opened the hamper to find a large pile of his brand new navy blue dress socks, all dirty.

Felicity poked her head in the laundry room, “What are you looking for? Clean socks? I haven’t done the load of darks yet, I can do that tonight.”

“But I need clean socks today Felicity.”

“Sorry, I thought you bought enough new socks in your last mega-purchase to get your through any delay in the laundry schedule.”

“I thought I did too, but I didn’t realize there were so many rules about the laundry. I figured the hamper is full, you run a load.”

“Didn’t you mother teach you how to do laundry mister. No wait, she didn’t, and she probably didn’t do any laundry herself either.”

“No Felicity, no laundry lessons for me. I guess I am late to the party on learning that particular life skill. I’ll just wear one of these pairs again,” as he pulled a pair of his blue dress socks out of the dirty hamper. “Maybe I could help with the laundry, or buy more socks.”

“I guess you could help, if you have time, just ask Raisa to give you a quick lesson, you know how to separate by color and fabric type, water temperatures… I can’t believe I’ve found something that Oliver Queen doesn't know how to do.”

“I'm a quick study.”

Oliver thought, _“how hard can it be. I’ll just run a quick load this morning before I leave for City Hall.”_

“I’m headed out, love you, I’ll be late this evening, Curtis and I are working on the spinal implant presentation,” said Felicity, giving Oliver a quick peck on his lips.

He grabbed her arm to keep her from moving away and gave her a much more substantial kiss. 

Felicity blushed. Oliver whispered against her lips, “I needed a little more to hold me over until tonight,” he said. “I love you too. I’ll see you later,” added Oliver as he watched her leave the apartment. 

As soon as the door was shut Oliver returned to the laundry room to fill the machine with all of his new dress socks from the dirty hamper. The machine was only half full. _“I should probably run a full load,”_ thought Oliver as he turned to open the other hamper in search of more dirty laundry. Finding the second hamper empty, he widened his search. There were some kitchen towels, and finally in the master bathroom, he grabbed the two large white fluffy bath sheets from the rack. 

Oliver returned to the laundry room and added the other items on top of his socks. He carefully measured some detergent using the bottle’s directions and dumped it into the machine.

“So warm or cold?" he wondered. 

<============>

It had been another long day of meetings when Oliver returned to the apartment. At least tonight there was no Green Arrow business to handle or campaign events to fill his time. An alarm went off on his phone, “I almost forgot, I need to put the laundry in the dryer.”

Oliver loaded the towels and socks into the dryer and turned it on. Time flew as he busied himself making some dinner. Before long the dryer buzzed and he went to reclaim his now clean navy blue socks.

He turned on the light in the laundry room and opened the dryer. First he pulled out his socks, matching them as he went. Next he pulled out the kitchen towels and folded them neatly on the top of the machine. Lastly he pulled out the two bath sheet towels. 

“What happened to these? Why are they covered with blue streaks? Oh no, what have I done. Felicity is going to kill me, she loves these towels.”

Oliver reacted like a child who had accidentally broken a treasured vase. He grabbed a trash bag from the kitchen and stuffed the towels in. He dashed down the hallway with his laundry mistake and hid the bag in the back corner of his closet. 

“Oliver, where are you? I’m home,” called Felicity as she entered their apartment.

“I’ll be right out,” he called, closing the closet door as he headed into the living room.

Oliver walked straight up to Felicity, grabbed her face with both his hands and kissed her soundly. 

“What was that for?”

“Nothing, I’m just really happy to see you.”

She wound her arms around her neck and kissed him again, “I’m really happy to see you too, I’m getting used to these special greetings of yours.”

Oliver continued to kiss her and completely forgot about his laundry debacle until the next morning when Felicity was the first to go into the bathroom to take a shower. 

“Oliver, have you seen the clean towels?”

<============>

**Author's Note:**

> I wracked my brain to come up with something that Oliver wouldn’t have learned to do, based on his privileged upbringing that might fit this week’s prompt. That’s where the laundry idea came up. (God knows many men purposely screw up the laundry so they never have to do it again.) I am pretty sure that Oliver did some laundry while he was in Hong Kong, and maybe he was a equal partner in the chores while he and Felicity were in Ivy town. I’m assuming he may not have fully internalized those lessons. Let’s face it, nobody’s perfect. Hopefully it wasn’t too corny!


End file.
